Don't call us, We'll call you.

I saw a promotion for the above titled webinar. I looked back at the direct marketing field and started thinking about what response looked like in the past. Thirty years ago people got a mailing for a product or service, (postal only by the way) and either went to the store to make their purchase OR, made a phone call if it was for a catalog. Then, email became a household method of communication. Although visiting a store and calling a call center continued to be key, people got used to seeing an email, clicking on the link and ordering their product or service.

Life got easier, more streamlined, but as with all new methods of marketing it too had it's problems. People would load their cart, then abandon them. They would respond to an email, click through and discover that what they thought they wanted, wasn't really what they expected. Forms asked for too much information so people just left, or they found that there are many more interesting things to click on than fill out a form or order.

Fast forward to the current environment and phones are as complex as a home computer. Everything that used to require a printed catalog and call center are now in our hand, accessible 24/7. I believe we have become overwhelmed with information. Everyone wanting a part of our time, a piece of our life. To the point where people no longer want to give their information to companies without a compelling reason to do so. Why? They know that the followup inundation of mail, phone calls or email will be more than they wanted. Which, brings me to the title of this blog.

People have developed the attitude of "If I want what you're offering, I will call you". I admit, I do this a lot. I get more advertisements (mostly email) from list managers pushing their latest and greatest list. Are these valuable to me? Not really. It's just more junk to delete and not particularly relevant. There are two sources that list every direct marketing list on the market. SRDS and NextMark and primary search engines for direct mail/email/telemarketing lists. Why keep or respond to an email for a new, updated list, when I can type in a few keywords and get a complete list of all lists on the market? It turns out, I have been using the Don't call us, we'll call you approach for years! I just didn't realize it.

What else does this new attitude toward our marketing message mean? Tracking sales is more critical than ever. Where did an order come from? If you do an email campaign, get an order but not from on line, where did that customer get the information they needed to order or attend your school? I guarantee you that if you have been doing billboards, broadcast ads, direct mail and email campaigns you likely have NO idea where your leads are actually coming from.

I had a client who spent hundreds of dollars on inserts in coupon packets. I did an analysis (at their request) of performance, added a user code, tracked it for 3 months and discovered that what they thought was a fabulous lead generation tool, generated zero response. NO ONE used their coupons to call and attend their school. Instead, their direct mail program generated over 50,000 leads over a period of years. Enough for them to call and follow up to attract new students.

The key to all of these changes in customer response is to build a system to track where your customers are actually coming from. Ask them. If you're a school in Higher Education, go to your Adult Students and ask "What brought you to our school?" It's simple, Ask and you will find out so much about your prospects and how to reach them. BUT, remember they are likely calling YOU, not responding in a way that you expect or anticipate.

Quantity or Quality? Do e-mail campaigns have to be large to be effective?

I have been conducting a number of e-mail campaigns lately and have uncovered some interesting facts. More is not necessarily better. Many campaigns have been running in the 100,000+ e-mails sent range, with about a 28% open rate and 1,300 click throughs. Yet, two recent campaigns were under 50,000 emails (one was under 6,000) and they acheived 1,560 click throughs (on 50,000 sent) and the other 1,200 click throughs (on 5,890 sent). Other campaigns with 180,000 e-mails sent got about the same number of click throughs.

In analyzing the difference between the large versus small campaigns the results can be explained in one way. Targeting! Both of the small mailings were for very targeted programs in a VERY specific geographic area. The name recognition of the school, combined with simple, uncomplicated design and copy allowed the recipient to:

1) Identify quickly that this was an institution with name recognition
2) Was in their target area of interests.
3) Was worth looking into more deeply for more information.

Each of these programs, received 100% of their click throughs for follow up. I will be checking with my clients to see what their conversion rate may be. However, in the meantime, e-mail marketing can deliver large numbers of prospects to your door. People waiting to complete their degree, or advance their degree. Will you get them to attend YOUR school? Or will another school win their business?

For more information, contact:
David Fant
Market Mapping plus LLC
616-956-7129
david@marketmappingplus.com